Learning that comes alive !

We are living in an era of information overload, fleeting attention span and FOMO. This is true across generations and geographies. Catching audience attention as a public speaker is a huge challenge and the only way to overcome it is to get creative and find ways of engaging with the audience. Let me share my (my team’s) experiments over the last few months.

• CLDP: When I was asked to deliver a session on corporate governance and board dynamics for young graduating Company Secretaries as part of their ultimate training module (Corporate Leadership Development Programme), I decided no more boring presentations that would put them all to sleep. They would have received enough and more theory about the topic, filled up answer sheets, presented project reports and followed media stories. What they need is experiential learning. To make this possible, my colleague and I came up with 4-5 fictitious cases that required board deliberations and role play as Chairperson, Independent Directors, promoters, proxy advisors, CFO, CS, Legal Head, Internal Auditor, Environmental expert etc. This made sure every member of the class got a chance to prepare, speak and perform a role. Suddenly,  the whole class came alive as they watched each other sink into the elevated roles and sat in the board room discussing serious business issues. Icing on the cake was when they keenly observed and shared their feedback for each other. This made sure everyone listened carefully, there was no crosstalk or dozing off and focussed communication. After every mock board meeting, I evaluated and gave my critical feedback on both the law as well as the communication style for each role that included the verbal and non-verbal aspects, presentation style, team dynamics, decision making methodologies, what type of a board the role play indicated – professional, promoter driven, disruptive, collaborative etc. It was fun based learning that gave me also an assurance that the future of corporate governance is safe in the young, smart hands. 
• SSE: In another instance, I was asked to speak to a group of NGOs about registration on the Social Stock Exchange (SSE) which is a relatively new concept. While the regulators spoke about their expectations and the law around SSE, I chose to speak from the NGOs perspective – the challenges they could face, the readiness in governance, data and organisation structure expected, practical insights, professional help that adds value etc. Instead of relying merely on a presentation, I called one of my clients who is the founder of a Foundation and a good communicator on to the stage to share his experience in going through the entire registration process. It became a fireside chat model where we discussed the law, procedure, practical difficulties, nuances and how to level up to gain public credibility as a compliant NGO. Must say experiment worked pretty well with participants staying engaged even after the session. Regulators also became aware of the challenges on the other side. 
• MFK: Recently our firm was approached by Mentors for Kids Foundation (https://upskill.mentorsforkids.in/courses) to host a few MBA students under their “Setu : Upskilling students from rural Karnataka” initiative. The ask was to familiarise them with corporate legal and compliances and how practice firms function. The moment I presented the proposition to my team, they lapped it up with full enthusiasm, broke up into teams and took responsibility for 5 different topics spanning company incorporation, fund raise, intellectual property rights, CSR and contract analysis. My mandate was – it should be creative and engaging. Must say the team excelled expectations. The visiting students-team from Udupi were fully engaged all through – by way of riddles, quizzes, contract clause Q & As, visualisation of dream companies, gamified flash cards, ‘Pick One’ trivia rounds, pictorial illustrations etc. It was a truly fun-based immersive learning experience that both the students as well as my team enjoyed. 
• Corporate Laws Amendment Bill, 2026 : In legal circles, this is the talk of the town since it is an extensively transformative change proposed in the functioning of LLPs and Companies. There are seminars, workshops, conferences, round tables, representation aplenty. Here again the challenge for our team was how to make learning interesting, creative and enjoyable. Again, every single one of them put their best foot (should I say tongue😊?) forward and came up with unique models. Some of them turned into demanding clients seeking advice, while others became busy consultants offering explanations. Yet others turned into news anchors interviewing a few more as subject matter experts. This model had hilarious product ads enacted as well during break time! One team had an exasperated CS trainee travel through a time machine comparing the changes over a block of years and lamenting on the MCA performance glitches. Over 5-6 sessions, the entire Amendment Bill was explained through role plays and well scripted performances. Again the bottom line was Fun based Learning ! 

Likewise we have endeavored to make Samhita as creative as possible and have been receiving positive feedback from the readers. This 324th  issue spans updates from MCA, Ministry of Labour, RBI, IBBI, SEBI and GST. 

For access to previous issues of Samhita and readers’ feedback, please visit:
👉 http://www.sharadasc.com/resource-center/